Crypto has its own language. This glossary explains more than 80 of the most common cryptocurrency, blockchain, DeFi and trading terms in plain English. Bookmark it and come back whenever you meet an unfamiliar word. Where a topic deserves more than a sentence or two, we link to a full guide.
A–B
Address — A string of characters that identifies where crypto can be sent, similar to an account number. Safe to share.
Airdrop — Free tokens distributed to wallets, often to reward early users. Unexpected «airdrops» can also be scams — see common crypto scams.
Altcoin — Any cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin.
AMM (automated market maker) — A type of decentralized exchange that prices trades using liquidity pools rather than an order book.
APR / APY — Annual percentage rate (simple interest) vs annual percentage yield (including compounding).
ASIC — Specialized hardware built for one task, such as Bitcoin mining.
ATH — All-time high: the highest price an asset has ever reached.
Bear market — A prolonged period of falling prices.
Bitcoin (BTC) — The first cryptocurrency, launched in 2009, with a 21 million coin cap. Read what is Bitcoin.
Block — A batch of transactions added to a blockchain.
Block reward — New coins paid to the miner or validator who adds a block.
Blockchain — A shared, append-only ledger maintained by many computers. See what is a blockchain.
Bridge — A protocol that moves assets between blockchains. Bridges are a frequent hacking target.
Bull market — A prolonged period of rising prices.
Burn — Permanently removing tokens from circulation by sending them to an unusable address or destroying them via protocol rules.
C–D
CEX — Centralized exchange: a company that holds customer funds and matches trades.
Cold wallet — A wallet that keeps private keys offline, such as a hardware wallet. Compare hot vs cold wallets.
Confirmation — Each block added after the one containing your transaction; more confirmations mean more finality.
Consensus mechanism — The method a blockchain uses to agree on its state, such as proof of work or proof of stake.
Custodial — A service that holds your private keys for you.
DAO — Decentralized autonomous organization: a group governed by token-holder votes and smart contracts.
DCA — Dollar-cost averaging: buying a fixed amount on a schedule. See DCA explained.
DeFi — Decentralized finance: financial services built on smart contracts. Read what is DeFi.
Depeg — When a stablecoin’s price moves away from its target, such as $1.
DEX — Decentralized exchange: swap tokens directly from your wallet via smart contracts.
Difficulty — How hard it is to mine a new block on a proof-of-work chain; adjusts automatically.
DYOR — «Do your own research.»
E–G
ERC-20 — Ethereum’s standard for fungible tokens.
Ethereum (ETH) — A programmable blockchain for smart contracts. Read what is Ethereum.
EVM — Ethereum Virtual Machine: the environment that runs smart contracts on Ethereum and compatible chains.
Exchange — A platform for buying, selling and swapping crypto.
Fiat — Government-issued currency such as the US dollar or euro.
Finality — The point at which a transaction can’t be reversed.
FOMO / FUD — Fear of missing out / fear, uncertainty and doubt.
Fork — A change to a blockchain’s rules. A hard fork isn’t backward-compatible and can split a chain.
Gas — The fee unit for computation on Ethereum and similar chains.
Genesis block — The first block of a blockchain.
H–L
Halving — The 50% cut to Bitcoin’s block reward every 210,000 blocks. See Bitcoin halving explained.
Hash — A fixed-length fingerprint of data produced by a hash function.
Hash rate — The total computing power securing a proof-of-work network.
HODL — Holding crypto long-term rather than trading; originally a famous typo of «hold».
Hot wallet — A wallet whose keys are on an internet-connected device.
Impermanent loss — The potential shortfall liquidity providers face versus simply holding, when prices change.
KYC — «Know your customer»: identity verification required by regulated platforms.
Layer 1 / Layer 2 — A base blockchain vs a network built on top of it for scaling. See Layer 2 explained.
Leverage — Borrowing to increase position size; magnifies gains and losses.
Lightning Network — A Layer 2 on Bitcoin for fast, cheap payments.
Liquidation — The forced sale of collateral when a loan or leveraged position becomes too risky.
Liquidity pool — A smart contract holding two or more tokens that traders swap against.
M–P
Market cap — Price × circulating supply. A rough measure of a coin’s size.
Mempool — The waiting area for unconfirmed transactions.
Meme coin — A token driven mostly by community and hype rather than utility.
MEV — Maximal extractable value: profit from ordering, including or excluding transactions in a block.
Mining — Securing a proof-of-work blockchain with computing power in exchange for rewards.
Multisig — A wallet requiring several keys (e.g. 2 of 3) to approve a transaction.
NFT — Non-fungible token: a unique token representing ownership of a specific item.
Node — A computer running blockchain software that stores and verifies the chain.
Non-custodial — You control your own private keys.
Oracle — A service that brings off-chain data, such as prices, onto a blockchain.
Private key — The secret that controls a crypto address. Never share it.
Proof of stake / proof of work — The two main consensus mechanisms. Compare them in PoW vs PoS.
Public key — Derived from the private key; used to generate your address.
R–S
Rollup — A Layer 2 that bundles transactions and posts data to a Layer 1.
Rug pull — A scam where developers abandon a project and take investors’ money.
Satoshi (sat) — The smallest unit of bitcoin: 0.00000001 BTC.
Seed phrase — 12 or 24 words that back up a wallet. See seed phrase security.
Self-custody — Holding your own keys instead of trusting a third party.
Slashing — Destruction of part of a validator’s stake as a penalty for misbehavior.
Slippage — The difference between the expected and actual price of a trade.
Smart contract — A program that runs on a blockchain and executes automatically.
Stablecoin — A token designed to keep a stable value. See what are stablecoins.
Staking — Locking coins to help secure a proof-of-stake network for rewards. See staking explained.
T–Z
Testnet — A practice blockchain where tokens have no real value.
Token — A digital asset issued on an existing blockchain.
Tokenomics — The supply, distribution and incentives of a token.
TVL — Total value locked: the value of assets deposited in DeFi protocols.
Validator — A participant that proposes and confirms blocks on a proof-of-stake network.
Volatility — How sharply and frequently a price moves.
Wallet — Software or hardware that manages your keys and lets you send and receive crypto.
Whale — An individual or entity holding a very large amount of a cryptocurrency.
Zero-knowledge proof — A cryptographic method to prove something is true without revealing the underlying data; used by ZK rollups.
Ready to put it into practice? Start with What is cryptocurrency? and then how to buy crypto safely.
